Facebook is being taken to Federal Court over alleged privacy breaches stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

In 2018, reports in The New York Times and The Guardian revealed Cambridge Analytica had access to Facebook data that it used to build psychological profiles and categorise individual voters.

The Australian Information Commissioner now alleges that Facebook disclosed the personal information of Australians unlawfully.

“We claim these actions left the personal data of around 311,127 Australian Facebook users exposed to be sold and used for purposes including political profiling, well outside users' expectations,” Australian information commissioner Angelene Falk said in a statement.

An app called ‘This is Your Digital Life’ was used to collect the data of people who downloaded it, but also their entire Facebook friends network.

Even though just 53 Australians installed it, the Commissioner says, the app requested the data of more than 300,000 Australians.

A Facebook spokesperson says the company is responding.

“We've made major changes to our platforms, in consultation with international regulators, to restrict the information available to app developers, implement new governance protocols and build industry-leading controls to help people protect and manage their data,” the company told reporters.

“We're unable to comment further as this is now before the Federal Court.”

Facebook is also accused of breaching privacy laws by not taking reasonable steps to protect users' personal information from unauthorised disclosure.

The OAIC says the “opacity” of Facebook's privacy settings prevented affected Australians from understanding their data was shared with the app.

It also said Facebook has not provided it “a precise record” of the personal information Facebook shared with the developers of the This is Your Digital Life app.

“All entities operating in Australia must be transparent and accountable in the way they handle personal information, in accordance with their obligations under Australian privacy law,” Commissioner Falk said.

“Facebook's default settings facilitated the disclosure of personal information, including sensitive information, at the expense of privacy.”